And+What+is+Web+2.0?

**What is Web 2.0?**


Early websites were passive, you simply read information from the page and you couldn't add to or change the on screen information. The newer tools that are commonly called ** [|Web 2.0 tools] ** allow for much interactivity and user-created content.

//"The term "Web 2.0" describes the changing trends in the use of [|World Wide Web] technology and [|web design] that aim to enhance [|creativity], communications, secure information sharing, collaboration and functionality of the web. Web 2.0 concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-culture communities and [|hosted services], such as [|social-networking sites], [|video sharing sites], [|wikis], [|blogs], and [|folksonomies].// //Although the term suggests a new version of the [|World Wide Web], it does not refer to an update to any technical specifications, but rather to changes in the ways [|software developers] and [|end-users] utilize the Web."// **From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia**

The main difference between the original Web and Web 2.0 is the average user is able to actively engage with and customize their online experiences without any specialized technical knowledge of programming codes such as [|HTML]. The web is now more collaborative and user-driven consisting of easily accessible tools for connecting, sharing, organizing and publishing. Rather than simply being a place for //consuming// content Web users are now //connecting, contributing, creating and collaborating//.

//"If print culture shaped the environment in which the Enlightenment blossomed and set the scene for the Industrial Revolution, participatory media might similarly shape the cognitive and social environments in which twenty first century life will take place (a shift in the way our culture operates). For this reason, participatory media literacy is not another subject to be shoehorned into the curriculum as job training for knowledge workers.//

//Participatory media include (but aren't limited to) [|blogs], [|wikis], [|RSS], [|tagging] and [|social bookmarking], [|music]-[|photo]-[|video] sharing, [|mashups], [|podcasts], [|digital storytelling], [|virtual communities], [|social network services], virtual environments, and [|videoblogs]. These distinctly different media share three common, interrelated characteristics:// > **Participative Pedagogy for a Literacy Of Literacies: Howard Rheingold**
 * //Many-to-many media now make it possible for every person connected to the network to broadcast as well as receive text, images, audio, video, software, data, discussions, transactions, computations, tags, or links to and from every other person. The asymmetry between broadcaster and audience that was dictated by the structure of pre-digital technologies has changed radically. (This is a technical- structural characteristic.)//
 * //Participatory media are social media whose value and power derives from the active participation of many people. Value derives not just from the size of the audience, but from their power to link to each other, to form a public as well as a market. (This is a psychological and social characteristic.)//
 * //Social networks, when amplified by information and communication networks, enable broader, faster, and lower cost coordination of activities. (This is an economic and political characteristic.)"//

media type="youtube" key="6gmP4nk0EOE" height="344" width="425"
 * Web 2.0: The Machine is Us/ing Us** by Michael Wesch (4:30)


 * What might Web 2.0 look like in our school?**

Readings: "[|Web 2.0 is the Future of Education]" by Steve Hargadon "A Day in the Life of Web 2.0" by David Warlick.

**Students are Changing...**
media type="file" key="A Vision of Students Today.flv.flv" width="360" height="270"
 * A Vision of Students Today** by Michael Wesch and students at Kansas State University (4:45)